Sea Miles

So how many sea miles will the Spain to Greece delivery add to our nautical log?…

…About 1300 nautical miles!

Prerequisites to complete the RYA levels are:

• Day Skipper – 100nm
• Coastal Skipper – 300nm
• Yachtmaster Coastal – 800nm
• Yachtmaster Offshore – 2500nm

So we’ll have covered enough distance to qualify for all of the levels by the time we finish. 

We’ll keep working on getting even more sea miles in our log though. We need to keep gaining experience, building new skills – one of the beauties of the cruising life is the non-stop ride of continuous education. 

You can never have too much experience under your belt.

–Captain Cat

(transcribed by the Can Opener)

Learn to Cruise

Previously:  Sailing Strength Training

New Year’s Resolutions 2012

New Year’s Resolutions for the Can Opener

1. work out 4x/wk 
2. build some serious sea miles
3. pass RYA Coastal Skipper Practical 
4. finish researching yacht designs on the short list
5. start actively viewing/self-surveying potential yachts on the final contenders list and keep notes
6. study French 15 min/d, 5d/wk
7. study Spanish 15 min/d, 5d/wk 
8. proactively maintain smoked salmon stockpile at all times
9. … and publish the Cruising Kitty blog 5x/wk  

New Year’s Resolutions for Captain Cat?

Hard to come up with too many as I am a nearly perfect cat. But no harm in trying… 

Here we go:

1. be nicer to the Can Opener – regularly recognise his efforts with judicious application of the oyster tin (with contents). We know positive encouragement beats all other routes to success hands down every time
2. share my mouse more often (Why? See #1 above.)
3. …and I suppose I could join the Can Opener for a few weekly turns on the treadmill. To keep up his spirits of course… there is no truth to the rumour that my belly currently provides more durable buoyancy than my own life jacket.

–Captain Cat

(transcribed by the Can Opener)

So Have We Accomplished Anything Yet?

2011 in Review

What Have We Accomplished So far?

This year in August, the Can Opener and I officially (officially to us at any rate) launched our Get Cruising Now Plan. We honed, we polished, we set goals, a timeline (2014 or bust) and a plan to get there. 

It’s been 5 months now, so what progress have we made? 

Well, a lot of ‘we’ve made a start’ type of ‘to-do’s’ have been ticked. The kind of ‘to-do’s’ that are meant to set us up for the real work we will need to do in 2012. 

So, the 2011 highlights (since August) are:

1. joined yacht club
2. started team racing 
3. read 9 cruising reference texts, attended 4 cruising lectures
4. made contact with 3 boats that we hope to crew on for next year
5. researched foul weather gear upgrades (still have to buy them though…)
6. began yacht designs research 
7. the Can Opener worked out 4x/wk… usually
8. the Can Opener began studying Spanish and picked up his old French studies and…
9. … in order to share what we learned, and keep ourselves organised and focused – we launched this blog!

Are we happy? 
Well, you can always wish you had done a lot more. But writing it down feels good. And maybe it’s not too bad… It’s a start. Something to build on in 2012.  

… Off to carve out some New Year’s Resolutions for 2012!

–Captain Cat

(transcribed by the Can Opener)